Back in '96, I read a post that, it seems to me, is appropriate at
this juncture:
So I'll re-post it here, in its entirety.
Again, please direct all 'heat' to me. I'm leaving the original stuff
only to Honor Truth with respect to the prior poster's work in
collecting the contents of that which I re-post.
k. p. collins
Subject: Re: [Fwd: Re: The Conscious Mind -- David Chalmers]
Date: 9 Oct 1996 21:03:07 -0400
From: hubey at pegasus.montclair.edu (H. M. Hubey)
Organization: Montclair State University
Newsgroups:
sci.physics,alt.sci.physics.new-theories,alt.consciousness,sci.skepti
c,comp.ai.philosophy
Time for a repost :-)..
"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of
science, 1949
"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
"I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked
with the
best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad
that won't
last out the year."
The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957
"But what ... is it good for?"
Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM,
1968,
commenting on the microchip.
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital
Equipment Corp.,
1977
"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously
considered as a
means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to
us."
Western Union internal memo, 1876.
"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who
would
payfor a message sent to nobody in particular?"
David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for
investment in the radio in the 1920s.
"The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn
better
than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible."
A Yale University management professor in response to Fred
Smith's
paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. Smith
went on to
found Federal Express Corp.
"Who the h--- wants to hear actors talk?"
H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.
"I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and
not
Gary Cooper."
Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in
"Gone
With The Wind."
"A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports
say
America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you
make."
Response to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields'
Cookies.
"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."
Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.
"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible."
Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.
"If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The
literature was full of examples that said you can't do this."
Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives
for 3-M
"Post-It" Notepads.
"So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing,
even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about
funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our
salary, we'll come work for you.' And they said, 'No.' So then we
went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't need you.
You
haven't got through college yet.'"
Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get
Atari
and H-P interested in his and Steve Wozniak's personal
computer.
"Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and
reaction
and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which
to react.
He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high
schools."
1921 New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard's
revolutionary
rocket work.
"You want to have consistent and uniform muscle development across
all
of your muscles? It can't be done. It's just a fact of life. You
just
have to accept inconsistent muscle development as an unalterable
condition of weight training."
Response to Arthur Jones, who solved the "unsolvable" problem
by
inventing Nautilus.
"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil?
You're crazy."
Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to
drill for oil in 1859.
"The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives."
Admiral William Leahy, US Atomic Bomb Project.
"This fellow Charles Lindbergh will never make it. He's doomed."
Harry Guggenheim, millionaire aviation enthusiast.
"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau."
Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.
"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value."
Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole
Superieure
de Guerre.
"Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific
advances."
Dr. Lee De Forest, inventor of the vacuum tube and father of
television.
"Everything that can be invented has been invented."
Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.
"Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction".
--Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872
"The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the
intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon".
-Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed
Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873.
"If excessive smoking actually plays a role in the production of
lung
cancer, it seems to be a minor one."
-Dr. W.C. Heuper of the National Cancer Institute, as quoted
in
the New York Times on April 14, 1954.
"For the majority of People, smoking has a beneficial effect."
-Dr. Ian G. Macdonald, Los Angeles surgeon, quoted in
"Newsweek", Nov.18th 1963.
"640K ought to be enough for anybody." - Bill Gates, 1981
--
Regards, Mark
http://www.csam.montclair.edu/~hubeyhubey at pegasus.montclair.edu